Kimi Raikkonen wants improvement on 'small things'

Kimi Raikkonen says he needs to work on fine-tuning the "small things" in his performance after missing out on the podium at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Finn made a slow start in Sunday's race and lost time to the leaders while he fought his way back through the order, ultimately recovering to a "disappointing" fourth while Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel went on to take his second win of the campaign. Raikkonen is yet to finish in the top three in 2017 but insists he is happy overall with Ferrari's start to the season.

"Looking at the big picture we are pretty much where we want to be, we need to fine-tune a few things and also putting the lap together in qualifying," Raikkonen said. "I don't think they are big things but, obviously, they have cost us a lot of time. First of all it's taking too long, in my view, but there's no point in complaining, this is my job. I think we are more or less there but have to do even better -- as always, we always try to improve -- and if you're running at the front the race becomes an awful lot easier.

"To be honest it has taken way too long! It wasn't possible to get it right straight away and we still haven't, for a lot of reasons. It didn't help that in China we didn't drive in the first day of practice, because when you're going through some issues you want to get track time. I'm pretty happy with the car now and yesterday, on one lap pace, it was just small things."

While Raikkonen admitted his poor start cost him severely in Sunday's race, he felt unlucky to have end up behind Williams' Felipe Massa for a second time due to the timing of the Safety Car.

"The car was working pretty nicely and, to be honest, I expected that. It was just on the one-lap pace that I couldn't get what I wanted out of it. I have no complains on that side. But I had a s--- start and awful first corners, because of that. Obviously after that I tried to catch up and got reasonably quick past Massa, even though that cost me sometime.

"Then, obviously I was a bit unlucky with the Safety Car when it came to the first pit stop, lost the position to Massa and had to try and get past him again. At that point, obviously, I was a bit behind. In a way, a lot of good things happened but the end result is still disappointing, at least in my books."

When asked if his teammates' two wins have made him more motivated to record his first F1 victory since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, Raikkonen replied: "No, I don't know why it would make me hungrier. I'm happy for the team, happy for him, but we want to do better, no mater in what position we are and that's always the aim."

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